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encrypted.google.com – Google’s Encrypted Search Gets A New Address

Google has changed the URL of its encrypted search service to https://encrypted.google.com. In past, this service was hosted on https://www.google.com. Many schools and institutes had reported problems with the older encrypted search site as they were unable to stop students and employees from searching filtered items. The encrypted search securely and privately searches the Google’s search index in such a manner that the network administrator can not track or filter search queries.

The organizations, using Google Apps, were also unable to block the encrypted search website, as it would have blocked Google Apps tools. Gmail and many applications of Google Apps are available only with the HTTPS connection. Google reported this problem on its official blog:

So to prevent students from bypassing their filters, some schools are blocking encrypted search. However, a side effect of this action is that it also blocks other services hosted at Google’s secure URL, including Google Apps for Education, and many of our other services which require authentication to keep information safe. [ … ]

And today, Google solved this problem by introducing a new separate sub-domain name for the encrypted search, encrypted.google.com. Now, the network administrators can block Google’s SSL search without affecting access to other services.

One thought on “encrypted.google.com – Google’s Encrypted Search Gets A New Address”

This is not a solution: And I wonder how many people confirm, applause and beleive this. At first, using a subdomain only helps to avoid DNS resolution. The servers can still be accessed without ever sending any DNS requests. Secondly Google is still using the exact same IP Adresses for encrypted.google.com as for other google services. So the filter can still be bypassed by any 12 y.o. child. Only after moving the encrypted.google.com subdomain to its own network, Google can say, they have a solution.